UK job growth slows down in August

New figures show that this past August saw the slowest rate of job appointments in the last 10 months.

A survey carried out by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) seems to suggest that the UK job market is slowing down, as both temporary and permanent placements fell to their lowest level since last October.

REC have revealed that its permanent placements index saw the sharpest drop in August, down to 56.3 from July’s 60.2, and the index has been declining in general since reaching its biggest high of over 10 years in March with 65.2.

According to national figures there are currently 2.46 million people unemployed in the UK. As the Coalition Government’s reign takes hold, with budget deficit reduction their main priority, people are worried that spending cuts will only mean even less jobs than there are now.

REC’S chief executive, Kevin Green, said: “We are concerned about the UK jobs market. Growth is rapidly slowing as public sector job freezes start to bite and private sector employers' confidence remains fragile. A priority for government is to ramp up the support and guidance for job-seekers and to raise awareness of these growth areas within our labour market.”